Don’t think I have seen anyone that I follow, of any political stripe, say they would pay even $5 a month for verification let alone $20.
And as for team motivation to create a good product - telling them you’re fired in a week if you don’t make deadline isn’t it.
The thing about social media, good and bad, is the group confirms the individual. There is no need for this sort of regulator on Twitter, and this is the sort of authoritarianism that Elon says he despises but it belies his true desires.